Chris Warhurst

Ignorant Theory and Knowledgeable Workers: Interrogating the Connections between Knowledge, Skills and Services

This article builds on recent critiques of the knowledge economy to argue that key growth areas in future employment will be in low level service jobs rather than knowledge work as currently understood. The article discusses the knowledge, skills and competencies involved in interactive service work. It suggests that knowledge which is contextual, social or tacit has been taken to be of lesser value in relation to competitive advantage. It highlights the contrast, therefore, between the growth in interactive service work and the focus of the knowledge management literature on a small sub-set of total employment. Two case-studies of interactive service work, one drawn from a range of service sectors and the other from a call-centre setting, provide empirical material which highlights the skills required by em-ployers in this area. Technical skills were seen as less important than aesthetic and social skills. These cases highlight the management of social skills and competencies as critical to interactive service work. Workers need to develop an understanding of themselves that allows them to consciously use their emotions and corporeality to influence the quality of the service. This leads to the conclusion that the interactive service sector should not be conflated with knowledge work. Rather, it is more important to focus on the broader need for knowledgeability in work, and so broaden understanding of labour in the contemporary workplace.

Employee experience of aesthetic labour in retail and hospitality

Interactive service job growth in the UK is significant.Analysis of labour within these services has tended to focus on employee attitudes, framed through emotional labour. Such analysis is not incorrect, just partial. Some employers also demand aesthetic labour, or employees with particular embodied capacities and attributes that appeal to the senses of customers. Reporting survey and focus group data, this article explores aesthetic labour as it is experienced by interactive service employees in the retail and hospitality industries. Issues examined are recruitment and selection; image and appearance; uniforms and dress codes; skills and training. By extending awareness of aesthetic labour so that both employee attitude and appearance are empirically and conceptually revealed, the article extends understanding of the job demands made of employees in interactive services.

What Work? What Life? What Balance? Critical Reflections on the Work-Life Balance Debate

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to initiate critical reflection on the assumptions and evidence underpinning the work‐life balance debate. Design/methodology/approach – The article reviews a range of international literature focused on and related to the work‐life balance debate and issues. Findings – In the work‐life balance debate, over‐work is perceived as the problem. Nevertheless, beyond working time and the provision of flexible working practices to enable child care, there is little in the debate abut the need to change work per se. The debate also narrowly perceives “life”, equating it with womens care work, hence the emphasis again of family‐friendly polices. Research limitations/implications – The article suggests that reconceptualisation is required in analyses of both work‐life balance and the relationship between work and life. Practical implications – The article implies that current work‐life balance policies are myopic in terms of addressing the needs and aspirations of employees. Originality/value – The article offers a synthesis of evidence that is wider than that typical in current analyses of work and life.

Hands, Hearts and Minds: Changing Work and Workers at the End of the Century

Charles Handy has argued that we do not have ‘hands’ in today’s organisations. The popular view is that organisations are opting, by choice or necessity, to engage with hearts and minds instead. It sits slightly oddly with a recent report on the fastest growing US occupations in the decade from 1994, which include home and health service aides, varieties of therapists, corrections officers and security guards. It seems that the future is care or constraint. Actually, there is a considerable amount of common ground among popular business and academic commentators about what the trends in work and workplace are. That commonality starts from a relabelling of the big picture. We are now living in a post-industrial, information or knowledge economy. As one recent study put it, ‘Future prosperity is likely to hinge on the use of scientific and technical knowledge, the management of information and the provision of services. The future will depend more on brains than brawn’ (Barley, 1996:xvii).

The skills that matter

The Skills That Matter is an edited collection written by leading academics from the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia in the area of skills acquisition, formation and development. It combines academic evidence and policy debates with a critical analysis, making it an asset to students of HRM, industrial relations, sociology of work and business and management at both undergraduate and postgraduate level as well as being a useful resource to researchers and policy makers working in the field of skill formation.

A new labour aristocracy? Aesthetic labour and routine interactive service

A re-conceptualization of the work and employment of interactive service and the workers who inhabit these jobs is required, not least because routine interactive services will provide most job growth in the UK for the foreseeable future (Wilson et al., 2004). This article initiates that task, arguing that it can be understood by reference to aesthetic labour, which is creating a potential new labour aristocracy and a reconfiguration of the service encounter.

The challenge of job quality

Job quality is a timely issue because of its potential impact on individual, firm and national well-being. This renewed interest underscores the need for robust conceptualization of job quality. This article provides background to the renewed interest in job quality and, drawing on the contributions to the Special Issue, starts to map the dimensions of job quality, the factors that influence job quality, and the outcomes or impacts of job quality. We identify a number of emergent themes. First, job quality is a multidimensional phenomenon. Second, multiple factors and forces operating at multiple levels influence job quality. Third, the study of job quality is an inherently multi-disciplinary endeavour. Fourth, job quality is a contextual phenomenon, differing among persons, occupations and labour market segments, societies and historical periods. Our mapping of job quality, and the articles in the Special Issue, provide a foundation and springboard for understanding better the theoretically challenging and policy-relevant issue of job quality.

The promised land? Why social inequalities are systemic in the creative industries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a more comprehensive understanding of why social inequalities and discrimination remain in the creative industries.Design/methodology/approach – The paper synthesizes existing academic and industry research and data, with a particular focus on the creative media industries.Findings – The paper reveals that existing understanding of the lack of diversity in the creative industries’ workforce is conceptually limited. Better understanding is enabled through an approach centred on the creative industries’ model of production. This approach explains why disadvantage and discrimination are systemic, not transitory.Practical implications – The findings suggest that current policy assumptions about the creative industries are misguided and need to be reconsidered. The findings also indicate how future research of the creative industries ought to be framed.Originality/value – The paper provides a novel synthesis of existing research and data to explain how the crea...

Lookism: the new frontier of employment discrimination?

The reason that Chinese navy sailors must be good looking and well-mannered, according to a navy spokesman, is that, as China opens up to the world and its navy vessels visit and engage in joint exercises with other countries, its sailors become representatives of China. Beyond the medias attention-grabbing headlines, there is now established academic research from the USA and UK, as well as some emerging indications from Australia, highlighting links between an individuals looks and his or her pay and employment prospects.

Soft skills and employability: Evidence from UK retail:

This article contributes to ongoing debates about soft skills in front-line interactive service work in considering employability in the UK retail sector. It recognizes how UK government policy has emphasized the importance of qualifications in enhancing employability. However, it suggests that for front-line work in retail it is soft skills that are required to access entry-level jobs. The article notes how these soft skills have traditionally been dominated by debates about emotional labour. Drawing on a survey of 173 clothing, footwear and leather goods retailers, the article argues for a need to recognize the broadening of soft skills to also include aesthetic labour. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the broadening of soft skills with regard to policy initiatives to encourage the long-term unemployed into the retail sector.